1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fryer which heats oil stored in an oil vat with a combusting and heating unit such as a pulse burner, and puts foods into the oil vat thereby to cook the foods by heating.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fryer is describe in JP-A-2002-223953 and JP-A-2002-85268. Such a fryer includes an oil vat for storing cooking oil therein and a combusting and heating unit such as a pulse burner for heating the oil in this oil vat, which are provided at the upper portion in a housing. The oil in the oil vat is heated by the combusting and heating unit at a predetermined temperature before foods is put into the oil vat, whereby the foods can be cooked by heating. The fryer further includes a cooking controller (operational panel) provided at the front upper portion of the housing including operation buttons and a display portion for setting a cooking mode, a temperature keeping mode and a cooking temperature.
In such the fryer, as the temperature of the oil vat increases by heat-cooking, the temperature of the operational panel near the oil vat also increases and becomes easily high. Accordingly, when an operator operates the operational panel, the increase in temperature of the operational panel gives him discomfort, and may cause poor operation of the operational panel. Therefore, JP-A-2002-223953 describes providing a dedicated fan for cooling the operational panel, or locating the operational panel apart from the oil vat. However, the provision of the fan causes unnecessary increase of cost, and the installation of the operational panel apart from the oil vat causes inconvenience because the operational position becomes far from a cooker.